Mario Lopez On Candy Crush: “It Is Massive!”

Candy Crushmakes its CBS debut on Sunday, July 9th at 9/8c. The globally successful mobile game comes to life inside a giant arena with teams of two swiping their way to victory on larger-than-life interactive playing surfaces. Seasoned television personality Mario Lopez will serve as host while contestants battle it out over a $100,000 grand prize.

CBS Local’s Matt Weiss caught up with Lopez to get the inside scoop on television’s sweetest game show.

MW: Hey, good morning Mario. How are you?

ML: I’m well Matt, how are you doing?

MW: Great! So, we’ll start at the beginning here, how was Candy Crush pitched to you and what got you excited to join the show?

ML: Well, I knew Candy Crush was a phenomenon and the biggest mobile game in the world, I love games and I love Candy Crush. It’s a game that people love to play and it’s fun and I think having fun is good for you. It’s something that you can play when you have some downtime and you want to entertain yourself. You can play it anytime, anywhere. Essentially, it’s the game itself played on the largest interactive game board in the world on teams of two trying to swipe candy and match candy with all these different obstacles. Then at the end of the day we give away $100,000. So, it’s a great time and a family-friendly show.

MW: What was it like when you walked into the Candy Crush arena for the first time? That thing looks massive.

ML: It is massive! It’s really impressive and really cool to be in there. Judging by audiences’ response they really got into it and they liked it.

MW: Have you strapped in and given it a test ride yourself?

ML: They didn’t let me do the big, big ones – I got to play the little mini games [Laughs]. Well no, I did the horizontal board actually, so I’ve done a lot of them but not the ‘mission impossible’ type ones. So I’m hoping to get in there.

MW: Oh man, yeah it looks like a lot of fun. Hopefully they let you take a run at it one day.

ML: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. People had a blast.

MW: Definitely. Now I’ve heard there are 15 different games that contestants are going to be able to play. We won’t run through all of them right now but can you talk about your favorite so far?

ML: Well, I think it all comes down to the obstacle course at the end when the two teams are pitted against each other and whoever wins goes home with a hundred grand. They start off on the horizontal board matching the candies and they’ve got to get this key to come all the way down. Then they go to the other vertical board where their partner is at and they’re swinging around to try to match the candies. It gets very intense and goes down to the wire often, it’s really exciting.

MW: Were you in the sound stage when they were actually building those huge boards? I saw there’s over 4000 cameras and 55 different touch screens in each board. Did you see everything being constructed?

ML: Yeah, I did see everything being constructed and it was incredibly impressive when it finally came together. It was really cool. Little visual kinks that needed to be worked out here and there, it’s just like playing on your phone but on these huge interactive boards which are like three stories.

MW: The show hasn’t even aired an episode yet, but you’re already award winning after the show received the Guinness World Record for the largest touch screen display. That’s got to be pretty cool, right?

ML: Right, Guinness Book of World Records in there, that was really cool. So I’m looking forward for people to check it out Sunday, July 9th, CBS. Should be a lot of fun.

MW: When that first episode airs on July 9th it’s going to kick off with Big Brother guests versus Survivor castaways. We’ve seen these guys and girls in the house, we’ve seen them on the island. How do they fare in the arena?

ML: People were obviously familiar with them and they’re familiar with being on TV and pretty savvy, so they were very relaxed in front of the camera. But that one was really competitive and it came down literally to the last second. So that’s a good one to kick it off and I’m glad that’s our launch episode.

MW: Awesome. Well Mario, I’m a big fan of the game as well and I can’t wait to watch the show. Congrats on the premiere and good luck the rest of the way.

ML: Thanks, Matt. I appreciate it.

Candy Crush premieres Sunday, July 9th at 9/8c only on CBS. Check your local listings for more information.